Orange County bands unite for showcase Sunday

Friday

Nov 30, 2012 at 2:00 AM

Bibi Maldonado has heard quite a bit of music coming out of Orange County.

Timothy Malcolm

Bibi Maldonado has heard quite a bit of music coming out of Orange County.

Sunday she will throw the inaugural Middiebuzz Local Talent Showcase at Party Zone USA right over the Middletown border in the Town of Wallkill, and there she'll present a variety of the music she's heard.

The story goes back three years, when Maldonado created Middiebuzz, a Web site devoted to promoting entertainment centered on Middletown and environs. In three years she has interviewed a number of artists and bands, creating a television program featured on Time Warner Cable Channel 23. But now she needs help funding the show, which is admittedly do-it-yourself. Some of the artists she has featured on her show will perform Sunday.

"It's been a three year process of getting to know the bands, getting to know the scene evolve," Maldonado said. "Not just Middletown but Orange County. ... I'm hoping it can shed a positive light on Middletown."

The Orange County music scene burns with a number of hot bands and artists. A blues scene stirred by bands like the Reddan Brothers have opened the doors for hungry younger guitar-wielding musicians. A punk movement led by kids in the Warwick area has ignited a fuse from the Tuscan Cafe up to Sounds Asylum. And a loud and lethal metal scene has spread, filled with devoted bands prepared to make a leap.

"I thought it was a bunch of noise," said Maldonado about her experience with metal before meeting the Orange County scene. "But if you get these artists, you see what they're doing — they're polite, some of them are even shy — they give it their all. They put so much effort into what they're doing."

Sunday's show will feature metal, especially from headliners Through the Flood, a Middletown band that recently released an EP titled "Save Yourself." Alternative outfit AsmarA will join, as will rappers such as Gunz (An American Poet) and Evan Coles. Opening will be Ammo Without a Gun, which blends Southern soul and roots with charming R&B slither and folk solitude.

Point is: These musicians are good. They're honing their craft at the New York School of Music in Walden, learning on the job at Sounds Asylum and the Tuscan, or at Noble Coffee Roasters or the Wherehouse. And they're all attempting to break it big. And Maldonado is there to listen.